


; 







Author 



Title 



Imprint. 



16—47372-2 «PO 



FIFTH 



ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL FAIR 



OF 



MARION COUNTY, INDIANA 



OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS. 



ADDRESS 



OF 



HON. OLIVER H. SMITH. 



1856. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 
ELDER & HARKNESS, PRINTERS. 

1856. 



ADDRESS 

OF THE 

HON. OLIVER H. SMITH, 

DELIVERED ON THE FAIR GROUNDS, 
AT INDIANAPOLIS, 



BEFORE THE 



MARION COUNT! AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
7 

AT THE ANNUAL FAIR, 



IN THE YEAR 1856. 



It 



IT. 



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INDIANAPOLIS: 
ELDER & HARKNESS, PRINTERS. 

1856. 






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FIFTH ANNUAL FAIR 



OF THE 



MARION COUNT! AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



OCTOBER, 1S56. 



OFFICERS: 

FIELDING BEELER, President. 
EVANS BRISTOW, Vice President. 
JOHN S. TARKINGTON, Secretary. 
HORACE FLETCHER, Treasurer. 
CALVIN FLETCHER, Jr., Superintendent. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: 

POWELL HOWLAND, Centre Township. 
DAVID GEORGE, Decatur Township. 
JAY TERRILL, Franklin Township. 
JAMES L. THOMPSON, Lawrence Township. 
IRA HOLLINGSWORTH, Pike Township. 
SAMUEL MOORE, Perry Township. 
JOSEPH W. BUCHANAN, Warren Township. 
HIRAM BACON, Washington Township. • 
ABRAM H. DAWSON, Wayne Township. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Members of the Marion County Agricultural Society : 

I had but one object in view, in accepting the kind invitation of your Society to 
deliver the Annual Address on this occasion, and that was, to contribute so far as I 
might, to the practical results essential to the prosperity of the Society, and the pro- 
gress and permanent usefulness of knowledge, when applied to Agricultural, Horti- 
cultural, and Mechanical pursuits, in the affairs of life. 

I might entertain you to-day, for the brief space allotted to this Address, with fine 
sayings, classical allusions, and metaphysical disquisitions upon subjects surrounding 
and even germain to the main object of your Association; but such an address, how- 
ever it might seem to elevate the author, would fall far short of the object I have in 
view. Let others range the fields of fancy, and cull from the gardens of classic 
literature their flowers of rhetoric, while I direct your thoughts to the useful, to the 
main object of the formation of Societies like yours, and to some practical consider- 
ations connected with the operations in which you are or may be engaged ; and if I 
should not give many extracts from written works to sustain my suggestions, you will 
rather attribute what may seem to be a neglect of authors, to the impossibility of 
confining myself within reasonable bounds, if I should attempt to analyze, or give 
even proper views from the books and writings of others. I wish to condense my 
remarks into a readable length, as I have long since noticed that, as a general rule, 
the writers of large books, like the authors of long, prosy addresses, must expect to 
be their chief readers. 

We have met at the Capital, on this anniversary of the Agricultural Society of 
the county of Marion, in the year 1856, for the purpose of adding our annual con- 
tributions to the store of knowledge, and of productions to the highly important ob- 
jects of our Association. It would be time uselessly occupied in this address, for me 
to attempt to prove, at this day, the utility or benefits of Agricultural Societies. The 
effect of this congregation of our citizens, bringing with you the annual fruits of 
your industry and experience, for the inspection of each other, and for the improve- 
ment, in kind and quality, of the several products, will not be full)' appreciated until 
its more matured results shall be presented on like occasions in after years. Since 
the commencement of this annual fair, I have walked over these beautiful grounds, 
so handsomely appropriated to this laudable purpose, both for the County and State; 
I have looked with true delight at the annual products of cultivated nature and of 
art that have been brought up and spread before us, and I have said to myself, what 
wonderful progress the hands of civilized industry are making! Truly, the late wil- 
derness is blossoming as the rose ; but above all, my heart has been filled with grati- 
tude, when looking at the cheerful and happy countenances, and the entire absence 



of all appearance of want or distress, of the assembled citizens of our county, and 
when reflecting upon the blessings Ave enjoy in this fertile, salubrious and beautiful 
portion of the great Valley of the Mississippi, under the best government on earth, 
where we can worship as our own consciences may dictate, where we are governed 
by laws of our own making, and where labor of both sexes is honorable. I cannot 
dismiss this idea without saying, that one of the happiest effects of these annual asso- 
ciations, is to bring the people from all parts of the county together, and by intro- 
ducing them to each other, strengthen the bonds of friendly neighborhood and 
county society, that should be maintained and cherished by us all. 

It affords, perhaps, the only pleasant opportunity in the year for our citizens to 
meet upon a common platform and exchange the salutations of the season, in rational, 
virtuous, innocent and useful conversation, unalloyed by the presence of a privileged 
aristocracy, or any other distinctions of society, than the true line that should be 
drawn between the virtuous and the vicious. Our Agricultural Fair 'should ever be 
held as our annual county jubilee, and its members, and all others, should zealously 
contribute to its perpetual prosperity. 

It may not be improper, as a further preliminary remark, to direct your thoughts 
to our beautiful, fertile State and county, to inquire what they were, what they are, 
and what are their prospects; and here let me be understood, once for all, I mean 
no invidious comparisons between Marion and other counties. Our State, as a great 
agricultural section of the West, will compare favorably with any other, wliile her 
mineral resources are of the first order, and inexhaustible. She lies in the trough 
of the Great Mississippi Valley, stretching from the Northern Lakes to the Ohio 
river on the south, and bounded by the great States of Ohio and Illinois, on the east 
and west. She lies directly across the track, for all time, of all the great artificial 
improvements that can ever be made connecting the Eastern Atlantic cities with the 
Pacific Ocean, over the Valley of the Mississippi. She is highly favored in point of 
climate, soil, minerals, wood, water, rock — in a word, Indiana combines all the ele- 
ments of a great and growing State, and being blessed with a free Constitution, she 
must yet contain as dense a population as any part of the globe. She was born in 
the year 1816, with some sixty-five thousand inhabitants — only about forty years 
ago. A few counties only were then organized ; the whole middle, north and north- 
west portions of the State were an unbroken wilderness, in the possession of the 
Indians. Well do I remember when there were but two white families settled west 
of the White Water Valley — one on Flat Rock, above where Rushville now stands, 
and the other on Brandywine, near where Greenfield was afterwards located. When 
I first visited the ground on which Indianapolis now stands, the whole country east 
to White Water, and west to the Wabash, was a dense, unbroken forest. There 
were no public roads, no bridges over any of the streams. The traveler had liter- 
erally to swim his way- No cultivated farms, no houses to shelter or feed the weary 
traveler or his jaded horse. The courts, years afterwards, were held in log huts, 
and the juries sat under the shade of the forest trees. I was Circuit Prosecuting 
Attorney at the time of the trials at the Falls of Fall Creek, where Pendleton now 
stands ; four of the prisoners were convicted of murder, and three of them hung 
for killing Indians. The court was held in a double' log cabin, the grand jury sat 
upon a log in the woods, and the foreman signed the bills of indictment, that I had 
prepared, upon his knee ; there was not a petit juror that had shoes on ; all wore 



moccasins, and were belted around the waist and carried side knives, used by the 
hunter. The products of the country consisted of peltries, the wild game killed in 
the forest by the Indian hunters, the fish caught in the interior lakes, rivers and 
creeks, the papaw, wild plum, haws, and small berries gathered by the squaws from 
the woods. The travel was confined to the single horse and his rider, the commerce 
to the pack-saddle, and the navigation to the Indian canoe. Many a time, and oft, 
have I crossed our swollen streams, by day and by night, sometimes swimming my 
horse, and at others paddling the rude bark canoe of the Indian. Such is a mere 
sketch of our State when I traversed its wilds, and I am not one of its first settlers. 

Such is a brief view of early Indiana, but it is sufficient for my present pur- 
pose, my object being merely to direct your thoughts to the rise and progress of the 
State generally, before I come to speak of our county of Marion especially. How 
stands the State to-day, as compared with Indiana at the time of her admission into 
the Union ? She then contained the same area of 33,809 square miles. Then, as 
now, she embraced the same minerals, the same fertile soil, and lay in the lap of the 
great Mississippi Valley. Her beautiful rivers and smaller streams then, as now, me- 
andered through every part of her territory. But then the State only contained 
some sixty-five thousand inhabitants, confined to a few counties ; now she contains 
some 1,500,000, spread over her ninety-one counties. Marion county was then a 
part of the wilderness; now she has a population of over 40,000, with taxables about 
$15,000,000, and produces annually over 250,000 bushels of wheat, 1,500,000 bushels 
of corn, 100,000 bushels of oats and barley, 55,000 bushels of potatoes, 9,000 horses 
and mules, 65,000 swine, 20,000 sheep, 19,000 cattle, 5,000 barrels of pork, 825,000 
pounds of bacon, 18,500 slaughtered animals, $10,500 of poultry, $15,000 of orchard 
products, $18,500 of garden products, $10,472 of home manufactures, $47,852 hay, 
$9,200 wool, $3,805 maple sugar, and other products in proportion. Then there 
was not a railroad of any considerable length in the Union ; now we have, in the 
United States, more miles of railroad than all the world besides. Then the magnetic 
telegraph and its usefulness were unknown. I well remember the first experiments 
of Dr. Morse, at "Washington city, amidst the universal doubts of even his ardent 
friends. Now our thoughts are flying upon the wires with the speed of lightning, 
through every part of the civilized world ; and such has already been the concen- 
tration of railroads at our Capital, that Indianapolis has, by common consent, received 
the name of "the Railroad City of the West." The trains of nine railroads, radi- 
ating from the Capital, in full operation, are hourly entering and leaving our city, 
exchanging their freight, and more than four thousand passengers daily, in our splen- 
did Union Passenger Depot, while other important lines of railroad are being con- 
structed to our city; and this is only the beginning of the end. Such is the rapid 
progress of this astonishing age. Time is flying with the rapidity of thought — the 
new world seems to be moving with uncommon velocity, and man is progressing to 
his ultimate high destiny under an impetus without a parallel in the history of our 
race. 

Members of the Agricultural Society — My main object to-day cannot be 
accomplished, without speaking directly to you, and through you to our other fellow- 
citizens of the county of Marion. I have already directed your attention to the 
character of our prosperous State, and said enough to enable you, at your leisure, to 
fill up the outlines I have sketched. I now desire to ask your attention for a few 



minutes, while we look at the scenes around us, at the position we occupy as citizens 
of the county of Marion, while we compare our county as she was, when organized, 
with what she now is; but more especially wliile we contemplate the position of our 
farmers and mechanics, at present, as compared with the early settlers. I cannot, in 
the brief time allowed me for this address, do more than sketch these comparisons, 
leaving you to carry them out by your own reflections. Those of you who lived 
here in early times, many of whom I see around me, will appreciate my views. 

I mean not to speak boastfully, but I may say truthfully, that our county of Mar- 
ion, in point of soil, growth of timber, purity of water, mildness of climate, local 
position, and all that could make her desirable for settlement and cultivation, stood 
unsurpassed in a state of nature. With these truths before us, it is not strange that 
such inducements to emigrants to make our county their permanent homes, should, 
in so few years, have produced the astonishing changes before our eyes. I stood, 
but as yesterday, on the site of Indianapolis, the Capital of our State, when there 
was scarcely a tree missing from the dense forest around it. I passed through the 
wilds of Marion on my pony, upon the winding Indian path, when the bear, the deer, 
and the wolf sprang up before me, and wildly bounded into the security of their 
native lairs. I recollect when the commerce of Marion and the infant Capital was 
carried between Cincinnati and young Indianapolis by the semi-monthly six ox train 
of my departed friend, old John Hager. This was the second stage of commercial 
operations in Marion, the single horse and the pack-saddle being then employed in 
carrying the mail, the letters and papers having become too bulky to be carried in 
the pockets of the mail boy. The beautiful and fertile lands of Marion were then 
covered with a heavy forest ; the farms, that you prize so highly now, were then the 
hiding places of the Indian and the wild animals of the woods. How stands the 
matter now? Look at Marion as she is! Cast your eyes to the east of this stand, 
and see the beautiful city of Indianapolis, the Capital of the State, with her twenty 
thousand inhabitants ! See the spires of her twenty-seven churches, of the different 
denominations of Christians, shooting up towards the clouds ! Look west, east, and 
north, at our humane institutions for the unfortunate deaf and dumb, blind, and in- 
sane. See the numerous towering station buildings of our railroads! Look at our 
colleges and graded school edifices ! See those beautiful buildings erected by the 
different associated benevolent orders! Observe our numerous first-class hotels! 
See the solid blocks of splendid wholesale and retail stores, filled with the choicest 
merchandize, from every clime! Observe our crowded streets! Hear the hum of 
business, and the sound of the workmen erecting new edifices, in every part of the 
city ! Listen to the whistle of the locomotives, entering and departing from our 
city, with their heavy freights and thousands of passengers ! Pass over the county 
in every direction, and see the state of improvement everywhere, large and beautiful 
cultivated farms, good houses and barns, fine orchards, and, in every neighborhood, 
convenient schools to educate the rising generation, who are soon to take our places 
upon the great theater of human action. And here let me say, give your children 
a good English education, such as may be obtained at the common schools; neglect 
them not ; lay well the foundation. Let no false father, mother, or teacher's pride 
induce you to force them into the higher branches before they can spell well, read 
well, write well, and understand the principles of arithmetic and tiie English gram- 
mar. Avoid the modern hotrbed system of education, that attempts to plant the top, 






instead of the root of the tree in the earth, and then your children will be prepared 
to meet the cares and duties of every-day life. My long, eventful life, both as a private 
citizen and a public man, authorizes me to say a word to the young men of the county 
of Marion. Character to you is everything — remember that your character does 
not grow out of your position, employment, profession, or avocation in life, nor does 
it attach to you, in this country, from family connections, or independent of your 
habits and conduct, but it is formed upon the unerring basis of all the elements that 
make the character of the wise, the virtuous, and the good. If you desire the respect 
of your fellow-citizens — if you wish a character that will aid you through life — let 
one who has tried the depths and shoals of private and public life advise you, as he 
would his only son, to look well to the formation of your character — be honest in all 
things, be industrious, be open and candid in your intercourse with others — cunning 
and deception may succeed for the time, but they will fail in the end. Let every 
act of your life be marked by strict integrity. Never promise what you have not a 
reasonable probability of performing. Touch not the intoxicating bowl — it is at- 
tended through life by nothing but ruin — it is not necessary for any purpose — I have 
tested it fully. I am now about sixty-two years of age, and have lived near forty 
years in Indiana. I have been exposed to the climate and settlement of a new coun- 
try — I have been more subjected to temptations, in high and low life, than most 
men, and yet I have never been intoxicated in my life ; nor in the last forty years 
have I drank a drop of spirituous liquor. During the eight years I served in the 
House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States, my habits were the 
same. I have frequently pledged the President, and Foreign Ministers, in a glass of 
water, while the wine was sparkling around me. During this long life, I have not 
been confined to my bed a week, altogether, by sickness, and have never had better 
health in my life than at present. I look around me for my cotemporaries who in- 
dulged freely in the intoxicating cup, and find them, with very few exceptions, in 
premature graves. Avoid cards, as you would your own destruction; the gambler, 
his character and associations, are avoided by all good men. Guard well your mor- 
als. In early life fix jour religious principles upon a safe foundation. If I had but 
three rules to lay down for my own son, after a long life of experience and exten- 
sive intercourse with my fellow-men, they would be : 1 st. Total abstinence from 
intoxicating liquors. 2d. Never even learn to play cards, and if you have learned, 
abandon the game at once and forever. 3d. Never be absent from church, when 
able to attend. These three rules, honestly adhered to, the other elements of a 
good character will naturally follow. 

You have every stimulus to action that could be desired — the soil, the climate, the 
facilities to convey your products to the best markets, at cheap rates. If these things 
be true, what is required of you in this age of progress ? When the whole earth is 
moving forward, when the arts and the sciences are astonishing the world by their 
new developments, when the agricultural interests are marching forward towards 
that high destiny that awaits them, shall the farmer, the mechanic, the artizan of 
Marion fold his arms and say, "it is enough; let me alone; I can manage my own 
affairs in my own way ?" I answer for you, no ! Then let me say to you, that what- 
ever resolves you may take with you, in your minds, from this annual fair, let the 
paramount one be, to 



10 

Fix Your Standard High. 
For let It be remembered, that a large portion of the failures of men, in the affairs 
of life, have resulted from fixing the standard too low, and being content with medi- 
ocrity, or even less. When the mind is willing to rest in a subordinate position, in 
whatever man is engaged, it cannot stand still ; it must recede, fall back still lower 
and lower in the scale of enterprise, until the man will finally reach the condition of 
the sluggard, who cried — 

" A little more sleep, a little more slumber ; 

Wasted half his days, and his hours without number." 

"I passed by his garden, and saw the wild briar, 
The thorn and the thistle grew broader and higher; 
The clothes that hang on him are turning to rags, 
And his money still wastes, till he starves or he begs." 

If you are a mechanic, an artizan, a farmer, a stock raiser, a florist, a botanist, a 
horticulturist, a professional man, fix your standard high. Make yourself thoroughly 
acquainted with your business, or profession, read the practical works of good au- 
thors, and work to them, aided by your daily experience, with a determination, on 
your part, that none shall excel you in the line of your profession, occupation, or 
business, and you must ultimately succeed. Your character will become known and 
appreciated by a discriminating public ; but if you are contented to stand on the 
common platform with others, who have no ambition to excel, you must expect to 
live like them, from hand to mouth, pass through the world unnoticed and unknown, 
and sink to your graves without a sympathizing tear, or even a stone to mark your 
earthly resting place. If you are a farmer, fix your standard high, make yourself 
acquainted with the best works on agriculture, on the character and quality of soils. 
on the best system of fertilizing, on the kinds of grain to be cultivated, on different 
soils, on the time for changing the crops and resting the grounds, on the kinds of 
manure and their appropriate uses, of the grasses and their adaptation to different 
soils, on the different implements of husbandry and their uses, of the preparation of 
the ground for the seed, and the quantity of seeds, of their kinds, to be used; upon 
the most profitable stock to be raised on the farm, upon the best manner of protect- 
ing your stock from the weather, the time and manner of selecting your seed for 
the ensuing season, of choosing your breeding stock, of their kinds; and here let 
me say, that while it is highly important to select from the best breeds of stock, it is 
quite as much so to examine your stock carefully, and take out the best for your 
breeders, from time to time ; by pursuing this course, you will soon find yourselves 
in possession of greatly improved stock, at little cost. These remarks apply to the 
horse, the jack, the jennet, the hog, the sheep, and even to domestic fowls. Be not 
deceived by names or pedigrees; look for yourselves. If the animal be a horse, look 
at his color, size, bone, form, eyes, action ; if these are right, you may risk him. So 
with the jack, the jennet. If the animal be a hog, examine him closely; if he has 
the three cardinal points, you may take him. He must have length of body to weigh 
well, a strong bone to carry his weight when fat, and stand near the ground to fat. 
at any age. And here let me say, that there is one characteristic about the hog that 
should be observed : he will not bear the reduction of his feed ; you may keep him 
as a stock hog, but whenever the process of fattening commences, it should be con- 
tinued, with all he will eat, until killing time, whether he is fatted in the corn field 



11 

or in the pen. If the animal be a sheep, examine him for yourself-, look to his size, 
length of body, length and quality of wool, and if these are what you desire, look 
no further, if the price suits. 

So with your cattle, especially your milch cows, so essential to every farmer. Se- 
lect the calves of your best milchers to be raised, and continue the process from year 
to year. I have no doubt but that much benefit to our farmers and stock raisers will 
result from the importation of foreign improved stock, of the different breeds; but 
while I say this, let me warn our farmers against running into extravagant and ruin- 
ous prices for such animals, but rather select the finest of the crosses from year to 
year, and the result will prove itself. I well remember when three Spanish Merino 
bucks, of the short, fine wool breed, were sold at New York, from ship board, for 
SI, 500 each, under a heavy competition. My father, who was a fair Pennsylvania 
farmer, instead of running after the excitement about that time, adopted the prac- 
tice of selecting his best, lengthy, long, fine wooled lambs for his stock, and turning 
over the inferior ones to the butchers; and the result was, that his flock rose in size: 
and quality, and quantity of wool, and mutton, in a few years, so as to be required 
for breeders, at high prices, by the surrounding neighborhood. Let our farmers try 
it — it will cost nothing — keeping in mind that the expense is no more to keep a 
good animal than a poor one, and much at last depends upon feed and care. It is 
an axiom, that the miller's hog is always of a good breed. 

A word as to the care of the farm. Very much of the value of a farm depends 
upon the care you take of it. And here, again, I would say, Jix your standard high. 
Let no other farmer excel you. Make your's a pattern farm. See that you have 
good fences; it is much easier to keep your stock out of your grain fields by good 
fences, before they become breachy, than it is to drive them out as your crop is 
being destroyed, and protect your fields against them afterwards. Farm no more 
ground in corn than you can tend well, and put the rest in small grain and grass. 
If you want to provide against drouth, plow deep. If you fear a wet season, plow 
deep. If your corn ground is flat and naturally wet, plow and plant in ridges, until 
you can drain it, but be careful not to plow when the ground is too wet. If you 
wisli to be considered a neat, pattern farmer, plow straight. The beauty of the. com 
field is the straight rows, at equal distances, and the success of the crop depench 
upon its cultivation. Plow and cultivate thoroughly and timely. Keep the rows 
free from weeds and grass, for if ever you let the corn be overshadowed, so as to 
turn the stalks yellow, the crop is ruined. And my observation is, that a farmer who 
has not pride or ambition enough to keep good fences, clean out his fence rows, trim 
and sprout his orchard, plow his grounds deep, lay off his corn fields in straight 
rows, keep his barn in repair, his gates and bars in order, glass in his windows, care 
for his stock in winter, and salt it well in summer, plant shade trees in his door yard, 
and educate his children, is in great danger of falling below the standard of a pat- 
tern farmer. 

The labor-saving implements of husbandry, the invention of late years, with their 
improvements, have revolutionized the process of cultivating the earth, in which 
three-fourths of the civilized world are now engaged, and have enabled the farmer 
to dispense with much of the manual labor that would be otherwise required. While 
in England, France and Germany, fanning operations have been brought to much 
higher perfection than in tliis country, still, when we see where we now stand, and 



12 

then look to many parts of the Old World, we have no eause to despair of ultimate 
success. I recently read a very interesting work, entitled " Observations in the 
East," by John P. Durbin, D. D. His description of the state of agriculture in the 
valley of the Nile, in Egypt, places us on high grounds in the comparison. He no- 
tices the manner of breaking up the ground there, which, if done here, would create 
some amusement among our farmers. The Doctor says : " The plow, which is too 
rude to be described, is commonly drawn by a camel and an ugly buffalo, yoked by 
a pole about nine feet long, the ends of which lie on their necks; one man guides 
the wooden stick, which seems to scratch the ground, while another drives and guides 
the team." And this in the ancient valley of the Nile, at this day. 

I have remai'ked upon the selection of stock. The same idea applies to the grains 
and seeds for your fields and gardens; the seed corn should be selected in the field, 
from the best kinds, adapted to the climate, from the most vigorous stalks, taking the 
largest, early ripe ears, with not less than two ears on a stalk, and before planting 
taking off the small grains at the end of the ear. By this process, if continued, 
you will bring your corn crop to a high state of perfection. The same remarks ap- 
ply to the potatoe, the tomato, the beet, the parsnip, the radish, the melon, the 
pumpkin, the squash, and indeed generally to the garden; and still in a more ex- 
tended degree to the orchard. Let the best fruit, adapted to the different seasons 
of the year, of its kind, be selected for your orchards, and reproduced by budding 
or grafting; it requires no more ground, nor greater expense, to have an orchard of 
the choice, fine, cultivated fruit, than it does to have one of the poorest seedlings — 
this every farmer knows, but every farmer does not practice upon his knowledge. 
It may be difficult to select the best fruit for our climate, in all cases; still we have 
some knowledge on this subject, and as it is a matter of opinion, I give my prefer- 
ences without intending to dispute the taste of others. 

Apple Orchard. — 1, Yellow Sweet June; 2, Bough; 3, Townsend; 4, Bambo; 5, 
Golden Busset; 6, Holland Pippin; 7, Yellow Bellflower; 8, Baldwin; 9, Prior 
Bed; 10, Spitzenburgh ; 11, Bomanite; 12 Smith's Cider; 13, Newtown Pippin; 14, 
Wine Sapp; 15, Bed Winter Pearmain; 16, Jennetain; 17, Vandeveer Pippin. 
An orchard that contains these several varieties will amply reward the farmer, if 
the grounds shall be kept loose, and the trees well sprouted and trimmed. 

Pears. — The variety of this fruit is not so great as the apple. I place the choice 
kinds in the following order: 1, the Seckel; 2, the Bartlet; 3, the Feaster; 4, the 
Sugar; 5, the Butter; 6, the Catharine. There are other fine varieties, that will 
do well in this climate, that may be selected from printed catalogues. 

Peaches. — The crop of this delicious fruit, owing to our severe winters and late 
frosts, has become very precarious. Still, I hope our farmers will not despair, 
and abandon the cultivation. I would suggest that fresh trees be planted each 
spring; bud them with the choice varieties, so that you may have a progressive 
orchard to meet the fruit seasons, as, perhaps, the only means of keeping up our 
peach orchards. 

Plums. — I fear that the Curculio has disposed of our best kinds, and left us to 
cultivate the small damson ; and when it fails, to look to the wild varieties of the red 
and yellow, of our native thickets. 

Cherries. — Whether it is owing to our climate, or to a want of care in the culti- 






13 

vation, that we see so very few fine cherries in our market, I am unable to say. 
The Eastern May Duke, Ox Heart, Red Heart, Black Heart, Carnation, and other 
choice varieties, are unknown to our markets, while the Sour Morella engrosses the 
stalls. Why is this ? Let our fruiterers answer, as it is their business to look to it. 

The Papaw. — Can this fine fruit, of our river and creek bottoms, be cultivated 
so as to improve its size and quality, is a question that ought to be answered here- 
after by others. 

A word as to your beast of burden ; " Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the 
corn." Keep your work animals well, and properly protected from the winter 
weather at night, and they will repay you in extra services. Such are always ready 
for the road, or the draft. And here let me remark, from my experience on my 
father's farm, when but a youth, that if you expect true draft animals, never over- 
load them. The ox, or the horse, should never learn that he cannot draw anything 
he is hitched to. The secret of balky animals lies in their having been, at some 
time, loaded beyond their strength — treat your work animals kindly, and they will 
feel and repay your care. Many, I fear, are too much in the habit of underrating 
the sagacity of their dumb beasts. They are capable, if not of loving and hating like 
human beings, certainly of something of a very kindred character. I owned a riding 
horse once, that I attached to my person so closely that he would never leave me, 
nor suffer himself to be separated from me, when we were from home, if he could 
possibly help it; and on one occasion, the carriage in which my wife and myself 
were riding, broke down before, throwing us upon his heels; I spoke to him kindly, 
calling him by name; he turned his head, looked directly at us, and quietly kept his 
place until we got out and released him — and yet, he was a horse of high mettle. 

May I be excused for referring to a matter that I deem sufficiently important to 
be noticed in this address. I allude to the kind of houses, to insure health to the 
family. In our climate, with our luxuriant vegetable growth, the earth upon which 
our houses are necessarily built, becomes damp, and emits a miasma, producing our 
intermitting fevers, so distressing to our people. My suggestion is, that wdiether 
your house be large or small, high or low, of one or more stories, built of brick, 
frame or logs, raise the basement at least four feet from the ground; and give a free, 
open circulation of air beneath, by windows, to be closed in cold weather. While 
such houses may not prove an infallible remedy against the climate, and causes re- 
ferred to, I am satisfied that they will alleviate the present distress in the fall season 
of the year. 

I should do injustice to the object of my address, were I to omit a word to the 
women, who are taking so much interest in the success of this association ; and who 
form the life of our families, and give character to the domestic household Much, 
very much of the success of the farmer, depends upon the domestic qualities of his 
wife, to cheer him on through life, and make his home the center of his and her 
happiness. This is especially true in a country like ours, where the joint labor and 
care of the sexes seem to be required, to insure success and happiness to the family 
circle. When a stranger enters the dwelling of our farmers, his eye at once embra- 
ces the order of the room; he sees whether it looks clean, and the furniture in its 
proper place and well dusted; and should he be invited to a meal with the family, 
as of course he will be if it is meal time, although he may not expect anything extra, 
he will look for such table comforts as the farm and the garden may yield, without 



14 

extra cost, to be served up in a plain, neat and clean manner. He has a right to 
expect good, sweet, well worked butter, and milk, the safely cared for and kept 
fruits of the garden and the orchard, with the more substantial products of the barn 
yard and the fields. No class of our citizens can live so well, at so little expense, as 
the Indiana farmer; and none can be so entirely independent of supplies from 
others, for the table. I do not wish to be understood that the mere fact that the 
farmer's wife is provided with milch cows, is sufficient to expect at her hands, good, 
sweet, well worked butter, such as commands the highest price in market. She 
must be provided, also, with sufficient help ; with a good milk house, where the milk 
and cream can be kept cool, and where solid butter and good cheese can be made. 
I am satisfied that much of the inferior butter and cheese that reach our markets, is 
owing to the fact that a proper milk house has not been provided. There is no suf- 
ficient excuse for not having a good milk house at the residence of each farmer. 
Every family must have cool drinking water; if they have a natural spring, there is 
the seat of the milk house; if a well is used, supply the milk troughs from the pump, 
but be sure to have a good cold place to keep your milk and butter, so as to keep 
them cool and sweet. 

The Garden. — Among our farmers, where horticulture is not much looked to, and 
where the labors of the field are exclusively in the charge of the men, the garden is 
usually attached to the house affairs, and left to the women. I am not speaking of 
those large gardens that are cultivated near our large cities, by men, to supply the 
market — would that we had many more of them around Indianapolis. I refer to the or- 
dinary fanner's garden. In Europe, the splendid gardens are in charge of salaried 
officers, well versed in scientific horticulture — indeed, trained from youth to the 
science, as a profession. The chief gardiner of one of these splendid resorts for the 
grandees of the land, receives a much higher salary than our governor, and has un- 
der him a large corps of inferior officers and laborers. The whole vegetable and 
floral kingdom, in all their varieties, from every part of the earth, are spread before 
the eye in all their luxuriant perfection. We may have such gardens in this 
country when our citizens shall become as wealthy as the millionaires of Europe. 
This we shall not see in our day. 

The object of our farmers should be to make the garden tributary to the family 
comforts, in the first place, and profitable as to the surplus. I would not introduce 
into the gardens of our farmers the green-house, but let it find its appropriate loca- 
tion near our large cities, to furnish to the votaries of Flora's kingdom the tender, 
beautiful and sweet-scented flowers, shrubs and roses. But the farmer's garden may 
contain the hardy rose, the peony, the dahlia, the pink, the tulip, the snow-ball 
and the lilac, for the eye ; currant, pie-plant, tomato, cucumber, beet, parsnip, ocre, 
pea, bean, lettuce, radish, asparagus, egg-plant, early cabbage, parsley, horse-radish, 
carrot, celery and onion, for the table; and I would have it large enough to add a 
good Isabella and Catawba grape bower, a strawberry bed, of the large kind, a patch 
of the mountain sweet watermelon, and fine nutmegs and cantelopes, with rows of 
the best bearing raspberries on the sides, and a good bee stand, to furnish honey for 
the family. The garden should be well manured ; there is no danger of making it 
too rich. I prefer putting on the manure in the fall, and letting it lie till spring, by 
which time it can be raked off, and the garden made without incumbrance. 

I do not wish to be understood as advocating any extraordinary or lavish expen- 



15 

ditures, either upon the farm or garden. I only contend for what is within the 
power of our farmers to perform, by using industry and economy. I insist that our 
farmers, being so bountifully supplied with the elements of comfort, shall, by their 
industry, enjoy the blessings Providence has bestowed upon them. I am the advo- 
cate of strict economy in every department of life. The farmer and the mechanic 
should be patterns of economy, as they are of industry. They get their means by 
the sweat of the brow, and they should learn how to use and take care of their money 
when obtained. The secret of wealth is not in the knowledge of the way to get 
money, but how to keep it when obtained. The thrifty farmer, or mechanic, will 
avoid going in debt beyond his probable means, never relying upon next year's crop 
or labor to extricate him from debt. Next year may never come to him, or it may 
come, not with healing or prosperity, but with drouth, blight and disappointment in 
its wings. Avoid the temptation of buying more land than you can pay for ; remem- 
ber that the farmer's thrift does not depend so much upon the size as upon the man- 
ner of the cultivation of the farm. There was much force in the remark of the 
farmer, that he intended to make a great addition to his farm, by making it smaller 
and taking better care of it. 

Woods and Shade Tkees. — There is nothing that strikes the intelligent trav- 
eler, and especially those from the South, with more surprise, when passing through 
our beautiful timbered country, than to see the indiscriminate and wanton destruc- 
tion of our lovely forest trees. The contrast between the North and the South in 
this respect, is too marked to escape observation. In the South, the buildings of the 
farmer are uniformly placed in the midst of a grove of native forest trees, giving 
shade, health and beauty to the mansion, the moment it becomes the family residence, 
while in the North our towering forest trees are cut down in hot haste, to make way 
for the farm house, and their place supplied with little switches, that may, or may 
not, as they happen to live or die, in the course of the next generation, come about 
as near the native trees that have been destroyed in beauty, grandeur and shade, as 
the sunflower does to the great luminary from which it takes its name. 

It is too late for our farmers to correct this great error, but it is not too late for 
every farmer to supply the best substitute he can for the forest trees he has de- 
stroyed, so as to shield his dwelling from the scorching meridian sun, so oppressive 
in our hot summers. 

The same train of thought applies to the destruction of our timber trees, at the 
present day. The marked distinction between a timbered and a prairie country is, 
that the former is prepared for the second generation by the labor of the first, while 
the latter may be used and cultivated by the first occupant, to advantage. Marion 
county is just passing the first stage of improvement ; the time was when it was 
necessary to clear off the woods, and convert the land into cultivated fields. This 
has been done, in most cases, to a sufficient extent, and it now behooves our farmers 
to preserve their woodlands from further destruction. This can be done by fencing, 
clearing out the undergrowth, and sowing in blue grass, making the woods orna- 
mental and profitable, and securing to our farmers the enjoyment of the superior 
advantages of a cultivated timbered country over a wide-spread prairie region, like 
that which stretches west of our State to the Rocky Mountains. 

Remember, that this is a government of the people, through the ballot-box, and 
consequently that it is the duty of every voter to exercise his elective franchise. 



16 

The Constitution of the United States, and those of the several States, are but as 
dead charts for our guidance, without the impelling power of the ballot-box. Our 
admirable form of government, based upon the will of the majority, supposes that 
each voter will take part in its administration. Never fail to cast your vote for the 
men of your choice, and never forget that the success of our great experiment of 
self-government, and the perpetuity of our glorious Union, may depend upon the 
manner of the exercise of the elective franchise. 

May I say, in closing, that after looking at the condition of man in all parts of the 
world, I am well satisfied that the citizens of Indiana, and especially the farming 
community, are in the enjoyment of as much real prosperity and happiness as has 
ever fallen to the lot of our race upon the earth, and that we see to-day but the be- 
ginning, if we prove true to ourselves. 

May each succeeding anniversary, as time rolls on, bring with it new evidences of 
the virtue, intelligence and industry of our citizens, of the growth, usefulness and 
prosperity of this Society, and of the onward march of our beloved State and coun- 
try to their destined greatness, under the protection of our free institutions and the 
kind regard of an overruling Providence. 






